There is a sudden rumble, and I am jolted from my inner world. My last sight is the small plant spider reaching the water.

Then I am back into reality.

A pirate kicks me in the ribs, yelling, “Get up, cap’in says to the brig with ya!”

Stand up, can’t show weakness now.

Coughing and clutching my side, I climb to my feet. My wrists are chained together, a half foot of chain connecting the manacle together.

The pirate shoves he towards The Ghastly Skull, in a line with the other prisoners. I follow a behind a large man wearing a blue wool coat. I take a step up onto the wide plank, slowly crossing it’s length.

I look over the edge, my vertigo hitting. The clouds are far bellow now, obscuring what’s under them, but that doesn’t help. I start thinking of falling off and landing against the ground with a splat.

Resisting the urge to vomit, I reach the other side of the plank. I breathe a sigh of relief as my feet touch down on the pirate ship.

A pirate who is missing teeth yells, pointing to the stairs leading down into the bowels of the ship. “Get down there ye ‘rash!”

I follow the line of prisoners as we are led down the stairs and deep into the ship I have to blink for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, the wooden stairs creaking under each step.

We move one levels down, to the middle of the ship. The prisoners and I are herded into small cells.

A pirate shoves me into a cell, “Get ‘n there!”

They are far more cautious with Kamar. Ducking, he walks into the cell behind me.

I sit down against the back wall, pulling my feet in close. The door to the cells slams just and the pirate locks it. I watch through the bars as the last of the prisoners are shoved into cells.

Kamar groans, sitting down. His two large forearms are chained together behind his back, the collar on his neck connecting them.

I look up at the dark, wood ceiling. The pitch that makes the boards watertight lathered onto and between the cracks of the wood. Studying the ceiling, I try to understand what I had done.

I didn’t create life, I only changed it. Shifted it and molded it into something else. I had turned the leaf into something more, but it was still alive. I need something living to use the Gray Life katra.

When you kill a person, or a sacred beast, all their katra hardens, forming into a sphere in the heart. This is called a core, but when in life, it is just an empty space filled with the liquid katra, there, but also not there. Some theorized that when you died, your soul or a part of it gets trapped in the Core as it forms.

Maybe that’s how the Controller created its monsters? It combined their cores together and used the souls inside to create beings.

I snort at the thought, I don’t know what I’m talking about. If it was the soul that was alive, then how did I shape the leaf? Unless it counted as part of the tree’s soul.

Shaking my head, I dispel it of these thoughts.

I look at Kamar, who do to his large size, is rather cramped in this small space. He has his eyes closed, head resting against the wall.

“We have to find a way to escape,” I say, trying to spark up some kind of conversation.

He just snorts, “No duh.”

I look at the iron bars, and past them to the dark cell on the other side. “We just need to hit it’s heart, then it will all come crashing down.”

The idea is insane, but it is the only one I can think of. We can’t fight Felton, that is clear. He now has the Artifact sword and the powers his orb gives him. From the battle I saw, he might as well be king up here. He can fly, control the clouds and from what I saw Corazon do, throw lightning. But I am sure of one thing.

“He can’t lift up a falling airship,” I whisper to myself.

The only problem is getting to the Sky Gem, it will most definitely be guarded, on all three ships. Then it is also probably locked in a metal canister, much like The Sky Fisher’s.

I would need the key to get to it. Unless I could somehow bend open the hatch. But if Sky Gem katra extractors are a general blueprint, then that would mean it would be near seamless. The container would probably also be made of steel.

So I need the key.

I sigh, holding my head in my hands. I might have access to my katra, but I am not strong enough to take on two ships worth of pirates and Felton. There was also the problem of being stuck behind these bars.

I look at Kamar, a dark shadow covers his black skinned face and grayish fur. I blink, something coming to my mind for the first time. I had assumed it was just the color of his fur, but I am sure it’s not now.

He looks like he has aged at least 20 years. He’s old.

His fur having grayed over time, and his face wrinkled. I had never met another of his kind, so I only assumed it was common for them to look like this. But now I can tell he is aged and old.

I blink, looking at him in a new light. It takes me a few seconds, but I do speak, “You never told me why you want to find the Villagers so badly.”

Kamar turns his head to look at me, putting on a exasperated look. “You never told me why you are trying to leave Traezar. Or why you entered Millwallow.”

It’s true, I had only said that I had entered Millwallow, and I never told him why I wanted to leave The Empire. I had only ever given him the vaugest descriptions. I still know so little about him.

I hold out my shackled hand towards Kamar with a jingle of chains. “I don’t think we ever got to really introduce ourselves. I am Kardin Amia, of the now destroyed village Amia. Apprentice of Warrior Ayria, and a Truebronze Sacred Artist.”

Kamar looks at my hand for a second. Then he shifts and one of his smaller arms grabs onto my hand, gripping it tightly and shaking. “Kamar Cal Arntile, of Millwallow Village, son of House Arten. Former warrior and adventurer, Lowsilver Sacred Artist on the Arten Ironworks Path.”

I let go of his hand, and look at him. He looks back at me, raising an eyebrow. “Truebronze Sacred Artist?”

I hesitate for a second, but decide it is for the best. If I am going to be working with him, it would be better if I was open. I nod, “I’m a cripple.”

Kamr stares at me for a second, then start bellowing in laughter. “Aahaha! A cripple? Gahahah!”

I wait till he is done laughing and catching his breath. The asper looks me in the eyes, “What Path do you follow? Does it have something to do with you being a literal void in my Silver sight?”

Maybe I shouldn’t say too much, yet. Nervously, I say, “I don’t follow a Path.”

Kamar looks skeptical. “You are a Homebrew?”

Homebrew is slang for a Sacred Artist who doesn’t follow an already set Path, like from a House or Clan. It is mostly not used as a complement.

“Yes. What of you though? What is the “Arten Ironworks Path”?” I ask, trying to redirect the conversation.

The asper waves with his small arm, then chuckles when he realises he can’t use his Katra. “I create constructs out of Iron Katra, like blades, hammers and other tools. Even armor. You didn’t answer my question though, I have been wondering why you are a void? I can’t even see your Katra flow.”

I shift uncomfortably, unsure of what to say. I choose the option Vicar told me to go with so long ago.

Holding up my black bandaged arm, I wave it a little. “It’s this Artifact, it mask’s all my Katra flow, hiding it.”

Kamar chuckles, “Not very hidden when you’re a literal walking black hole.” He holds his smaller left arm up to his chin, humming for a second. “Is it related to that sword the Pirate Captain got from Corazon?”

Confused, I ask, “What do you mean?”

“It’s much like you, a complete black hole. Can’t see anything from it, not even any Vital Aura around it.”

“Volans?” I say, thinking back to that sword. It might be like my arm. An Artifact from Cereus?

I shake my head, “I don’t know.”

Kamar sits back, thinking. Not saying anything.

“So you are from House Arten?”

Kamar shakes his head, looking at me. “No, I’m… adopted.”

I furrow my brow, trying to make sense of that statement. “What do you mean?”

The asper stares me in the eyes, and I hold his gaze. Then he looks away, heaving a big sigh. “Those eyes are freaking creepy. Fine, I’ll tell you, but you have to tell me how you came to be here after. Deal?”

I nod, one of my hands going to my eye. Are they really that bad?

“My mother was part of the Del’mara Tribe. They are a tribe of nomad Aspers, that travel all along the ridges of The Mountains of The Gods.

The chieftain took an interest in my mother, even though he was already… married. Well, my mother got pregnant with his illegitimate son, me. He cast my mother out of the tribe after she had given birth.

She was forced to cross over the mountains and go through the jungles. I can barely remember her face, but I do remember how weary she looked. The journey was hard, and by all accounts we should have died. Somehow… we made it through.

Only, we were attacked by hunters. My mother defended me to her last breath, despite being incredibly weak. The hunters killed her, and took me hostage. I was only a babe at the time, barely a year old.

The hunters had mistaken us for wild animals.” Kamar says this with spite in his voice, tears forming under his eyes, “Well, they sold me as an exotic pet. Or tried to at least. That was when the Head of House Arten found me, in the market. He knew what I was immediately, an asper.

He bought me from the hunters, and took me under his wing. The Head adopted me, and treated me like one of his sons. That was many years ago, before he died. But that’s another tale.” Kamar wipes the tears from his eyes with his second pair of arms. He looks at me with a determined gaze. “Now it’s your turn.”

I am silent, looking at the floorboards. His story bounces in my head, I think it over. The world truly isn’t fair, is it?

Hesitantly, I start to tell about how I came to this point.

***

I had omitted a lot of details, mostly around Inik and my Katra aspect. But I had told him my full story, of my participation in the Siege of Tarna. How I came to Millwallow, and everything else. He doesn’t press to know what my katra is, probably out of courtesy.

Kamar nods at the end of my story. “Yes, I only got out of Tarna before it was besieged by those… things. I was traveling back to my home in Millwallow when the siege was going on. And the giant dragon-thing flew right over my head, you were on it?”

“Yes, me and Vicar.” I say, the fire of hate burning inside me, demanding I take vengeance for Amia.

“I am sorry for your loss,” Kamar says softly, looking out the bars of our cell. “You have a plan for us to escape, I presume?”

I force a smile, “Something like that.”